5 ways to make better decisions even without willpower

We all without exception make thousands of daily decisions (even without realizing it). Some of the less or greater importance, but the point is that they all add or subtract something in our routine.

These decisions shape our day and not only that, they define the course of our near future. That is why it is extremely important that we learn some ways to make better decisions (even without willpower) to advance for our well-being.

In this interesting article I want to teach you 5 ways to make better decisions without depending on your will power. Start with the simple decision to continue reading and improve your routine in a healthy way.

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"There is a driving force more powerful than steam, electricity and atomic energy, will power" -Albert Einstein

 

There is no doubt that Albert Einstein had remarkable intelligence, but I am almost certain that he also encountered a lack of willpower at one time.

Even Hercules with his superhuman strength surely experienced moments when he will was not enough.

It has happened to all of us ...

We have great goals to fulfill, expectations to achieve and dreams to achieve, but our weak willpower is determined to lead us in the wrong direction.

We're looking at kitten photos on Instagram instead of digging into our next big work project. We watch Netflix instead of going for a run. We order fast food at home instead of preparing the salad that we promised.

Why? Because accomplishing something is challenging, awkward, and exhausting!

So when we stray from our goal, we blame our weak willpower, right?

Because let's be honest, if we had a little bit more willpower, it would be different, we could carry out all our plans and have the life we ​​want.

Ultimately, meeting your goals, meeting your expectations, or making your dreams come true is the result of a chain of decisions, a series of steps in the right direction.

And here I want to push you towards your goals, keep reading.

For most of us when we think of willpower, the first thing that comes to mind are those crucial moments when we are unable to say "no" and act on impulse ...

How can we turn down that chocolate cake, the third pair of shoes, the series at night, or that beer after work?

The problem is if we just depend on our will power to push ourselves to achieve our goals, chances are that we don't always have the amount of will necessary to take action.

So maybe it's not just about strengthening our willpower but finding a way to optimize our decisions without relying on it.

How? Well let me give you an example:

Regardless of what you think of his policy, it must be admitted that Barack Obama has a very demanding agenda. A typical ex-president day could include thousands of important decisions to attend to.

Author Michael Lewis explored for 6 months some of the details in Obama's daily life.

There was one question in particular that Lewis asked Obama and that really caught my attention:

- «Suppose in thirty minutes you will stop being president. I will take your place. How would you prepare me to be president? «

The president responded first by promoting the need for daily exercise (a habit I fully subscribe to), but what he said next was even more interesting:

- «You will see that I only wear gray or blue suits. I am trying to cut decisions and create good habits. Because I have too many decisions to make.

I think the answer was extremely successful: cut decisions and automate all the decisions you can.

Obama learned a way to optimize his decisions so as not to depend on his willpower.

If you think about it, it is a powerful way to drive our actions in the direction of our purposes.

It is a strategy to make better decisions without using our will power and also to be less impulsive.

But, before going into detail, we have to start with the first thing: what is will power?

What is willpower?

In the dictionary, the definition appears as: "the power to decide and order one's behavior."

And although different synonyms have been used such as will, determination, self-control, self-regulation, etc. all these words refer to one thing: our ability to control our impulses and make a conscious decision.

Willpower is the ability to take action to achieve long-term goals and resist short-term desires.

The struggle between making a correct decision that helps you achieve your long-term goals or being seduced by a pleasant decision at the moment is the result of a dynamic between two important parts of your brain:

The prefrontal cortex and the limbic (or primitive) brain.

The prefrontal cortex wants to achieve goals and plans for the future, while the primitive brain seeks to satisfy its impulses at the moment

Your ability to direct your actions in the right direction is the prefrontal cortex working in all its glory, it is your will power

According to the APA (American Psychological Association), most psychology researchers summarize willpower as:

• The ability to delay gratification and resist short-term temptations to achieve long-term goals;
• The ability to override an unwanted thought, feeling, or drive;
• A limited resource capable of being depleted

This last point has been studied since 1990 by researcher Roy Baumeister. He and his colleagues carried out various experiments.

In one of the experiments, participants were forced to eat a couple of radishes instead of the rich chocolate chip cookies (which were on the same table). Later they were asked to solve a puzzle.

Subjects who did not eat the cookie were quicker to give up this task (compared to those who did eat the cookie).

The reason: they had exhausted their mental resources. Their willpower was weakened trying to resist the urge and they were unable to successfully complete that puzzle.

The results show that all our mental actions consume the same "energy source", gradually diminishing our ability to make smart decisions.

They concluded that as the day goes by, we are less available to make good decisions.

Willpower is our mental energy.

Your brain searches for shortcuts to ease mental tension, for example: deciding impulsively (regardless of the consequences) or avoiding a decision.

According to Roy Baumeister's theory, everyday decisions such as: what foods to eat ? what clothes to wear? Or how do I comb my hair today? They also drain our mental energy until we are unable to make a conscious decision in favor of our most important goals.

All of the above means that your decisions consume a valuable resource: you're mental energy.

For example: after a major meeting at work, your choice of food for lunch may be poor, simply because your mental energy is depleted.

I have a real example of mental exhaustion that is really shocking:

Three male prisoners, who had served two-thirds of their sentence, appeared before a court to demand their parole. The parole board granted release to only one of them, guess which one:

• Case 1 (8:50 am): An Israeli Arab with a 30-month sentence for fraud.
• Case 2 (3:10 pm): An Israeli Arab with a 16-month sentence for assault.
• Case 3 (4:25 pm): An Israeli Arab with a 30-month sentence for fraud.

There was a pattern to the parole board's decisions, but it was NOT related to ethnic origins, crimes, or men's statements.

The researchers analyzed more than 1,100 judges' decisions during 1 year. They found that these probation decisions fluctuate widely throughout the day.

70% of the prisoners who appeared early in the morning received parole, while only 10% of the prisoners who appeared at the end of the day received it.

A single explanation in this regard: the judges had exhausted their mental energy, which influences decision-making.

And although everything sounds very logical, you have to know this ...

The mental energy theory is just a theory

Recently it has returned to study theory and new research not found evidence of the exhaustion of "mental energy" or simply are unable to measure it scientifically and objectively.

But even though it is only a theory, simply thinking that your will power is a limited resource motivates you to prioritize those correct decisions that drive you to achieve what you set out to do.

Making a wrong decision depletes your mental energy that could be used to make the right decision.

In other words: thinking that each decision consumes your willpower is a good strategy in itself to learn how to cut decisions and automate all the possible ones in the form of habits.

In this the way you do not depend on your "will power" and it will not be guilty of giving up or failing your goals.

Sounds interesting?…

How to learn to make better decisions without depending on your will power?

We have to learn to strengthen our prefrontal cortex so that it can dominate our decisions and resist the impulses of our primitive brain.

For that, I have you a summary of 5 ways to learn to make better decisions without depending on your willpower.

In this way, you will be giving priority to those decisions that lead you to achieve your goals.

1. Create a ritual that helps you decide better every day

Think about the routine of school children: recess starts and ends at the same time every day, and it is more signalized by the ringing of a bell.

If we left the decision to the children to start recess or end it spontaneously or improvised, it would be an eternal recess and the classes would not exist, right?

The power of routines is that they help us not to think about what's next, but simply to continue what was already planned, which cuts out many tiny decisions in your routine that could affect important decisions.

Routines don't need your willpower and help you save mental energy.

To create your routine, just think about your goal or what you want to achieve in the long term and design a ritual that makes it easier to be consistent.

Tip: Use a habit in your routine that works as a signal to start your ritual, something like "the recess bell."

For example:

• After work, I change my clothes and take the dog for a walk (when I get home, I already know what I have to do and I don't have to decide between lying down for a moment or going for a walk)
• When I wake up in the morning, I take a shower, get dressed and prepare myself some fruit with yogurt to take away (when it is 8 am I already know what I am going to prepare for breakfast and I don't have to think and decide if I have breakfast or not)
• After I put the kids to bed, I put on my pajamas and grab my book to read before bed (so when it's night, I don't have to think about what to do and I'm more likely to go to bed early as I had intended)

2. Make the right the decision the easiest and most obvious

Although you have your ritual, temptations will continue to appear in your daily routine and will prevent you from achieving what you set out to do.

So the question here is done you prefer to use your mental energy to resist or do you prefer to use that valuable energy to take action with what you have proposed?

Exact! You don't have to make your life more complicated!

Try to ensure that your environment has what it takes to decide correctly and vice versa: that what makes you decide incorrectly is not in sight.

Using the examples above, here are some ways to make your ritual more obvious than ever:

• My sports clothes are at the entrance along with the dog leash to go for a walk as planned (and I also have the television remote control at another end of the house)
• I have a note in the mirror not to forget my fruit to take away (and also I don't have the cash to avoid buying cookies in the office machine
• My pajamas are on the side of my book so it is easier to open it than to do something else (and I also have my phone turned off at that time so I don't check last-minute messages)

3. Identify you're crucial moments in advance

A crucial moment of most is stress.

When we are stressed, our body releases hormones that make us focus on possible dangers, which shortens your vision and reasoning to make other more relevant decisions. So the decisions we make under stress are not the best ones.

But there can also be other crucial moments that weaken our will power, for example, a state of mind (anger or tiredness), the company of a person, a time of day (at night), etc.

When you identify your crucial moment, you can be prepared not to fall.

These questions can help you identify them:

1.      In what area of ​​your routine is it where you most often give in?

2.      What time or mood is when you usually give up?

3.      What exhausts your willpower the most?

Once you have them identified, create a plan: what will you do when that crucial moment appears?

For example:

• If I'm stressed, then I breathe 5 times before ordering my food (not to decide on impulse)
• If I'm really tired, then I cook scrambled eggs for dinner (instead of deciding on the spot)
• If it's a Sunday morning, then I go to the cafeteria early to work on my project (instead of staying home and distracting myself with the kids)

4. Take action when you have more willpower

It is like the previous point, but in reverse.

We want to find that window in your routine in which your will power is at its maximum, so that we can prioritize important decisions that help you achieve your goals, right then and there.

It is a way of thinking that our willpower is a limited resource, so we want to take advantage of it when we have it.

Ask yourself:

1.      At what time of the day do you have more willpower?

2.      Under what conditions do you make better decisions?

For example:

• If I feel much more active in the morning, then it's better to make the decision to exercise in the morning
• If I feel free after fulfilling my family obligations, then it is better to make the decision to study English at that time
• If at night I feel full of energy, then it is better to make the decision to prepare my healthy meal at that time

5. Build habits to automate your decisions

I know, it's my own cliché, but habits are the best long-term strategy for not depending on your willpower all the time.

Think about it:

• If you are in the habit of exercising, it is easier to go running than not
• If you have a habit of reading, it is easier to leave your book in bed than to watch television until very late
• If you are in the habit of eating a healthy breakfast, it is easier to set aside 10 minutes in the morning than to eat a croissant
• If you're in the habit of eating healthy, it's easier for you to go to the supermarket to buy what you need than to order a pizza
• If you have a habit of meditating, it is easier for you to make that deserved break at work than to spend the day with a lot of stress.

When you have better habits, you no longer have to struggle to decide correctly all the time, you are automating your decisions.